AGRICULTURAL LAND USE

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Agriculture is an important economic activity. It includes growing crops and rearing

animals. Agriculture produces a wide range of products for manufacturing industries as well
as food. Unlike manufacturing and services, agriculture relies heavily on the pollution of the
environment, especially climate, and the life cycles of plant and animals. Both are largely
outside the control of farmers. Agriculture also uses a larger proportion of the Earth's surface
(about 37 per cent of the land area) and provides more employment world wide than any
other economic activity.
Factors involved in land use. The way in which people use their land and organize their
agricultural activities varies greatly. Physical, economic and human factors all exert an
influence upon agriculture, although the importance of each varies from place to place.
These factors are also interrelated.
At the global scale the distribution of agriculture is most influenced by climate. Large parts
of the planet are unsuitable for farming because they are either too cold or too dry. All
crops have minimum requirements for heat. Growth usually begins when the daily air
temperature rises above 6°C. Moreover, temperatures have to be above this critical level for
at least 120 days. As you go nearer to the poles, temperatures fall and the growing season
shorten, until cultivation is impossible. This is the main reason why cultivation rarely
extends beyond latitude 60° in the northern hemisphere. Crops also have minimum moisture
requirements. The world's hot deserts, such as the Saharan, Arabian and Australian deserts,
are too dry for cultivation unless water is available for irrigation. High mountains such as the
Himalayas and Andes support few farming activities. As well as severe climates they also
have steep slopes and thin soils.
In the more developed countries of the world, where scientific knowledge is applied
to farming, economic and human factors tend to play a particularly important role.
Physical problems can, to some extent, be overcome. In Holland, for example, a lot
of the present farming land has in fact been reclaimed from beneath the sea. In
Australia, water from the Snowy river has been diverted to irrigate land in the
southeastern Australia, so making it possible to increase crop fields there. In
Canada and the USA scientific plant rearing has made it possible to extend the
cultivation of wheat into areas which were previously thought to have been too dry
or too cold.
1.3. Complete the sentences using one of these verbs in the correct form:
can/replenish/renew, should/make, deplete, teach, develop, cause
Natural resources _______at unsustainable rates. Damage to agriculture
________by destructive practices of present agricultural systems. Agriculture
_____compatible with sustainable ecological and social systems. Soil ____with
careful husbandry. Some alternative methods ______ through scientific research. A
personal experience _________us about being responsible not only for making
decisions but also for accepting the consequences of these decisions.

1.6. Match the words expressions on the left with the definition on the right:

A) agriculture 1) the planting, tending, improving, or

B) pollution harvesting of crops or plants
C) crop 2) the science or practice of farming,
D) irrigation including cultivation of the soil for the
E) cultivation growing of crops and the rearing of animals
F) requirement 3) a cultivated plant that is grown as food, esp. a
grain,
4) the process of polluting water, air, or land,
especially with poisonous chemicals.
5) something demanded or imposed as an
obligation
6) The use of water pumped from boreholes or
diverted from rivers to assist agriculture